


Tested

by ClockworkDinosaur



Series: Davekat Week 2016 [6]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Crossover, Davekat Week 2016, M/M, Portal AU, Trolls on Earth, portalstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 18:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8172139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkDinosaur/pseuds/ClockworkDinosaur
Summary: Dave and Karkat want to escape Aperture Science Laboratories.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Davekat Week day 6: Crossovers/fusions/remixes
> 
> so have some Portalstuck!! This one took me FOREVER to write compared to the others, but I hope it's worth it!!

The Aperture Science facility was silent and dark. White halls led to white rooms with white furniture, blending together into a monochromatic blur as Karkat ran down the hall, his breath ragged, and his gray skin and orange jumpsuit the only flash of color he had seen for what seemed like hours. Every hallway was identical and he was more lost and confused than he was when he first woke up and left his room.

He had no idea what woke him up in the first place, but as soon as he was able to think coherently enough, he felt the urge to get out immediately.

Hitting a dead end in the maze of halls, he stopped, gasping for air and leaning against the blank white wall. Around him, unmarked and closed doors seemed to taunt him with their sameness, giving him no way of knowing if he had seen the same door twice. Air blew through the ventilation systems hidden in the walls, the only sound he heard aside from his own breathing and the frantic beating of his blood-pusher. He pressed his back to the wall and hugged his knees close, closing his eyes while trying to steady his breathing.

He was so focused on his breathing, he didn't hear the footsteps approach.

 

Dave marked another tally on his wall. Day four hundred and thirteen. The day had absolutely no meaning but it felt nice to know how long he had been alone since he woke up.

He had started off as a voluntary test subject for Aperture labs at the suggestion of his sister to make a little cash on the side. Months of testing passed and the test subject status became a lot less voluntary. He got tied up in wavers and paperwork, and before long Aperture Science essentially owned him.

They packed him away to sleep one day, and when he woke up nobody was around. He had been alone ever since.

Dave sighed. “Well, Strider,” he said aloud. Isolation gave him some weird habits, talking to himself being one of them. “What's on the agenda for today?”

He turned to the wall of his room, his neat map taking up a vast majority of the space. Some parts were incomplete, others were crossed out. He had only covered two or so floors; the facility was vast and he didn't start charting his explorations until a few months in when he realized he couldn't find a single map in the whole damn area. He set his sights on a hallway to his east, the rooms as of yet unexplored. Throwing some papers and scavenged water bottles into his backpack, he tightened the jumpsuit that he half wore around his waist, his white T-shirt grubby and stained but more comfortable than the stiff orange fabric of the jumpsuit.

“Lets get this fuckin' exploration party on the road,” he said, reaching for the doorknob.

Suddenly, the thudding of running feet passed his door, gasps audible over the pounding. Dave froze. The sound faded away. Hands shaking, he threw the door open and listened for the signs of another person. Whoever it was, they weren't making any effort to be quiet and Dave ran in the direction of thudding footfalls.

 

Karkat tensed as he sensed someone approaching him. His head snapped up, eyes wide. Down the hall, a young man froze.

They stared at each other without a word for a solid minute, Karkat's muscles locked as he watched the stranger.

He was a blonde human, tall and lanky, wearing an orange test subject jumpsuit like Karkat's but only halfway on, showing an old t-shirt with a record on the front. Most strangely, he was wearing sunglasses in the dim light.

“Uh,” the man started, his voice echoing down the hallway, “Hey?”

“Who the hell are you?” Karkat shouted, immediately defensive.

The man winced as Karkat's voice echoed. “Someone with an inside voice,” he said, taking a step closer.

“Stay right the fuck away from me,” Karkat warned. “I ask again: _who the hell are you?_ ”

“I'm Dave Strider,” he said. “Former test subject, current hideaway looking for a way to get the fuck out of here.” He took another step forward and Karkat made no objection, squinting at him as he closed the gap and sat down on the floor in front of him.

“So who are _you?_ ” he asked.

“Karkat Vantas, current confused and lost asshole,” he said. Dave cracked a grin, the expression unfamiliar and fleeting.

“So, uh, you're a troll, huh? I didn't know Aperture hired alien subjects,” Dave said.

“I _wasn't_ hired, at least I don't think so. I know for a fact I wouldn't volunteer here. I don't remember how the fuck I ended up in this shitty lab but I want out,” he said vehemently.

“Same, man. That's what I've been trying to do for the past few months, but this place is built like a fucking steel trap. A trap where if you take one wrong turn you're thrown into a pit of chemicals that melt your skin off,” said Dave.

“That's fucking pleasant,” Karkat snorted.

“This ain't a pleasant place,” Dave said with a shrug.

“How long have you been here?” Karkat asked.

“Uh, I've been awake for four hundred and thirteen days exactly. Before I was iced I was a test subject for... about a year? It's kinda hard to remember,” he admitted.

“Do you think those bastards did something to our memories?” Karkat asked, frowning.

“It wouldn't surprise me.”

They were quiet as they mulled that over for a minute. Karkat tried to remember anything from before he woke up, but nothing more than vague notions came to mind. A small apartment. Late night visits to nearly-empty grocery stores. Loneliness. Nothing solid that gave him any clue as to why he was in the seemingly abandoned Aperture Science facility.

“Where is everybody?” Karkat asked.

“I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume that everyone left for some reason. I've haven't seen another living thing since I woke up, until today of course,” Dave said, then grimaced. “Not to mention I haven't seen any corpses laying around, so I assume everyone just up and left.”  
“Have you been looking around long?” Karkat knew he was asking an obnoxious amount of questions, but Dave didn't seem to mind answering and the more he knew, the better.

“I've been awake over a year, but really only started mapping things out like seven months ago. Wanna see?” Dave asked.

“Sure,” said Karkat as he stood, his joints popping. Dave made his way confidently through the identical halls, never pausing to get his bearings at a junction or glancing at the closed doors or through frosted windows as he lead Karkat to his room.

He did hesitate once, his hand faltering before turning the knob and pushing the inconspicuous door open. He stepped inside and made a gesture to welcome Karkat inside.

Dave's room was clearly once identical to the one Karkat woke up in. The white walls, utilitarian steel furniture, and strange sleeping pod that seemed to be a hybrid recuperacoon and human bed were set up in the exact same layout as his own room.

The similarities stopped there. Papers covered in doodles and small print that Karkat couldn't make out were arranged on the wall seemingly at random. Dave's floor was a mess of wires and clothes, a makeshift radio of some sort taking up an entire corner of the room. The glass top of the bed-pod was braced open with a length of metal, the sheets and pillows piled inside haphazardly. It smelled vaguely of sweat and sleep and an underlying scent that Karkat couldn't quite pinpoint, but somehow avoided being completely unpleasant. It was very clearly lived-in, and it made the generic room seem friendlier.

Karkat's eyes were drawn to the wall behind him, where lines and grids covered nearly every inch. In one corner, neat red tally marks filled a few feet of space. The rest of the wall was taken up by a map. He studied it carefully, trying to figure out where his room was.

Dave watched Karkat as he traced the map with his eyes. Karkat was short, that was the first thing that caught Dave's attention. Everything about him was small and round, even the candy-corn horns that were visible through his wild mass of black hair. When he wasn't controlling his expression he was glaring, sharp teeth barely visible through black lips.

Dave couldn't tell if he was staring because he hadn't seen another person in over a year, or because Karkat was actually super adorable.

Karkat glanced away from the map to Dave, unsure if he was watching him from underneath his shades or if he was just paranoid. He squinted anyway, and then noted the blush that crept up Dave's neck as he turned away.

“Really creepy there, fuckass. Just staring at someone without saying a single goddamn word,” Karkat said, crossing his arms.

Dave put his hands up. “Chill dude, I was just looking at the map too,” he said.

“Bullshit, and don't fucking tell me to chill. Maybe you haven't noticed yet, but we're trapped here in this shady-ass science facility and now I'm alone in a room with some random stranger who could be sizing me up to make some sort of fucking suit out of my exoskeleton or some other serial-killer dicketry like that. I have every right not to be chill!” His voice raised as he got himself worked up, gesturing wildly.

“Trust me, I am well fucking aware of the situation we're in considering I've been living in this shady-ass facility for over a year _by myself_ ,” Dave shot back. “I was maybe hoping you could help me here somehow so we can both get the hell out, but maybe you just wanna rant at me some more?”

Karkat glared. “Fine,” he said, turning back to the map. He pointed to a section where the hallway stopped, marked by a large red X. “What's over there?”

Dave frowned. “Elevators that lead down to the test chambers. And _only_ the test chambers. No escape out there, that's what the X means. Plus they only seemed to work through AI guidance but I think the main AI of the facility is offline. Backup too, most likely.”

“You seem to know what you're talking about,” Karkat acknowledge, begrudgingly impressed. “But how do you know the _whole_ place is offline?”

Dave shrugged. “Nobody's tried to kill me or put me back in stasis. The cameras are all offline. The AIs are either offline or focused somewhere else.”

Karkat nodded, turning back to the map. Some hallways led off into blank wall, and others were noted with similar large red Xs. Stairways led to more labyrinthine hallways, and Karkat noted how much organization this map must have taken Dave. He glanced at him again to see that he was very deliberately not looking at Karkat, face turned firmly to the wall.

Karkat didn't even try to figure out why he felt a pang of disappointment.

“I was going to map out what's over here,” Dave said as he pointed, “but clearly things came up. I have a demanding schedule and you really through a wrench in my busy life, Vantas.”

Karkat gave him an incredulous look. “Yeah, I'm sure your social calendar is filled. And don't call me by my last name like you're so damn cool or something.” He looked back to the map. “Why not go explore now? I wanna see what's here and help if I can.”

Dave thought for a minute. “If you're up for it. Could be boring though,” he said.

“I don't fucking care, Dave. I want to be doing something. I want out.”

“Yeah me too, but I've been looking for a while now, dude. It's not like we're going to stumble on a breakthrough in one day.” Dave stashed a few more water bottles in his backpack and turned to Karkat.

“If you're ready though, let's jam.”

 

Navigating the identical halls was second nature to Dave. It took him a long time to remember what hall led where, and what doors led to rooms and which led to more halls, but he did eventually figure it out.

Of course, he wasn't perfect. One missed hallway led him and Karkat towards the test chamber elevators. He stopped short when he saw them and groaned.

“Fuck, wrong turn,” he said.

Karkat stepped closer to the glass tube elevators. There were two side-by-side, the lights inside still glowing faintly.

“You're sure they don't work?” he asked, looking inside.

“Pretty sure. I wasn't going to jump down the shaft to see if it would catch me or something, but I stepped inside one,” he said, passing Karkat and standing in one. He threw his arms out and shrugged. “Like I said, the AI is offline.”

Karkat stepped in the other out of curiosity. The glass pod had a clear ceiling, and he could almost see a pinprick of light far overhead.

“Are we undergr-” he started, before the ground seemed to fall away beneath him.

 

Dave felt his breath catch as the familiar feeling of being whisked away by the fast elevator overcame him again, a feeling he hadn't felt since he was a test subject. Dread and panic spread through his chest and he pressed his back against the cool glass of the elevator. As soon as it slowed to a stop and the doors hissed open, he launched himself out of the enclosed space with ragged breaths.

Karkat stepped out of the second elevator and glared.

“You said they didn't work, numbskull!” he shouted.

“I'm just as surprised as you are,” Dave said, still catching his breath. “We shouldn't be here, those shouldn't have worked.”

Karkat glared, looking around the room. One gray tiled wall held a glowing screen with a large 1 on it and several warning labels that made no sense to him.

“Where are we?”

Dave looked around and felt the panic begin to overtake him again. Taking a breath, he did his best to steady himself.

“This is a test chamber,” he said. “We go through a little puzzle like rats in a maze, make it to the end and the reward is another fucking test chamber.”

“What's the point?” Karkat asked. Dave opened his mouth to reply before another voice cut in over hidden speaker.

“Science.”

The voice was feminine and clinical, nearly robotic but not quite.

“Science is the point. It's a pleasure to see you again, Dave Strider. And a pleasure to meet you, Karkat Vantas.”

“Yeah, seeing me is always fantastic,” Dave said. His face was pale and he seemed frozen. Karkat gave him a confused look.

“Who the hell is that?” he asked.

“The secondary AI system,” Dave replied, his jaw tight.

“Not so secondary anymore, Dave. I have full admin control over this section of test chambers. Luckily they were built for two, so your new friend can participate in my trials. It's been quite a while since I've had any voluntary test subjects, but now I have two that just stepped right into my elevator. It's always an honor to have guests,” the AI said.

“You know this bullshit isn't voluntary,” Dave snorted. “I thought robots couldn't lie?”

“You both stepped voluntarily into the elevators,” the AI pointed out.

“We can argue details until we both fucking drop dead, but how about you just tell us how to get out?” Karkat shouted, glaring into the corners of the room as if trying to find somewhere where he could see and yell directly at the AI.

“Perhaps we will conduct a few tests first, see if Dave still remembers how.” A circular door to their left slid open.

“Fine. I guess we're playing her game now,” Dave muttered.

“No games, Dave. Just discovery.”

Dave flinched as bright lights snapped on in the test chamber proper. The white room was somehow elegant in its near-emptiness. Two buttons were glowing on the floor, darkened lights in a line leading over the floor and across the walls to a closed circular door.

“This chamber is only a test to see how well you two can work together. I understand that you two have only just met, but friendships forged under fire are often the strongest,” the AI said.

“Can you not be such a pretentious fucking poet for once?” Dave yelled, his voice echoing in the room and making Karkat jump.

“Relax, Dave. Just get through these tests with both you _and_ Karkat alive, and you will be rewarded.”

Dave stiffened. “Fine,” he said, his voice suddenly deadpan.

He walked over to the button and stood on it, and the dotted line of lights between him and the door lit up red. Karkat did the same thing with the other button, watching the lights glow red for him as well. Panic gripped his chest and he glanced at Dave, trying to see if that had any significance to him.

Dave just stared at the door as it slid open. He stalked out and Karkat followed behind, finding himself in front of two more elevators.

“Very good job, but perhaps you should learn to be more vocal in your teamwork,” the AI suggested.

“Oh I'll show you vocal, you piece of shit computer program,” Karkat shouted. “Trust me, I've known you for roughly five minutes and I've already got a list of grievances with you that I could go on about for perigrees, starting with the fact that you're forcing us to dance to your fucking tune for no discernible reason aside from the fact that you're doing some bullshit science experiments! But for who? I haven't met a single fucking person here who gives a hoofbeast's ass about science, and I-”

“Karkat,” Dave said, already standing in the elevator. “Forget it. She's not listening.”

“Dave is right, I'm not listening.”

With an enraged growl, Karkat stomped into the elevator.

 

Dave took a deep breath as the elevator descended. Being back in _her_ domain was terrifying, but he was ignoring his fear, covering it with a thick layer of detachment. He thought he was done being a test subject. He thought he would escape, mourn in peace, and be done with Aperture and what it had done to him and so many others. And to _her_ as well.

But he was back to testing, back to listening to her cold and emotionless voice as she did her best to test him to death.

Or at least test him until she was satisfied and put him back into a sleep pod for another indeterminate amount of time.

The elevator hissed to a stop and Dave stepped out at the same time as Karkat, who was fuming.

“This is such fucking bullshit!” Karkat hissed. “We can't waste our time doing this, Dave. We need to get out or something, we need to-”

“There's no escape, dude. Accept it,” Dave said.

“What? Hell no, I'm not accepting this! And I can't believe you _are,_ nooksniffer! What happened to trying to find a way out? So what if we're in a different place now, just a new place to find exits,” Karkat said firmly.

Dave stared, the fire in Karkat's eyes blazing.

“There is no escape,” the AI said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I didn't ask for your useless fucking opinion, you imbecilic calculator!”

The AI didn't respond to that. Dave took a deep breath.

“Let's just get through this, okay? We get through her trials and come out the motherfucking kings of Aperture Science or escape trying.”

He didn't believe a word he was saying, but it made Karkat stop staring holes into his eyes through his sunglasses.

Karkat walked into the test chamber first and was immediately sighted by three oblong white turrets.

“Hello friend,” said a soft robotic voice as the turrets began firing. Dave acted on instinct, running and pulling the stunned and confused Karkat to his chest as he ducked behind a wall. The turrets chattered quietly before returning to standby mode.

Bright red blood stained his white shirt. He felt no pain but he knew enough about trolls to know that their blood wasn't this color.

Karkat pushed Dave away weakly. “You're hurting my arm,” he groaned, eyes squeezed shut. Frowning, Dave pulled the arm Karkat was holding to his chest away. A bullet graze tore the sleeve of his jumpsuit, showing the gray skin underneath and the vivid red blood seeping from his wound.

“Karkat? Is this...normal?” Dave asked.

Karkat's eyes opened in increments, taking in the bright red blood on Dave's shirt and on his jumpsuit. “Fuck.”

“I thought you were a troll?” Dave asked.

“He is,” the AI said, sounding bored and detached. “Karkat Vantas is a mutant and falls outside the Alternian troll species's hemospectrum.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic, why don't we just spill all of my secrets while I'm bleeding to death in Strider's arms,” Karkat said, the irritation in his voice evident through his misery.

“You're fine, Karkat. No bleeding to death on my watch, Doctor Strider is in the house,” Dave said. He tore the already ruined sleeve of Karkat's jumpsuit into a strip and tied it around Karkat's wound tightly enough to stop the bleeding.

Karkat watched him as he worked, studying Dave's face. He was focused, wrinkles appearing between his blond eyebrows and mouth turned downwards as he worked. His shades were so opaque, Karkat could only get a vague notion of his eyes.

“How the hell are you supposed to see what you're doing through those douchey glasses?” Karkat asked as Dave finished off the final knot.

“Practice. That's how I got all of my badass skills,” Dave said. “Skills that let me save your ass a few minutes ago like a night in shining armor, or fucking Superman or some shit.”

“You're my hero, Strider,” Karkat said, and it didn't sound quite as sarcastic as it should have. Dave's face went red and suddenly Karkat didn't mind.

“So uh, are you okay to stand?” Dave asked. “My legs are falling asleep. Don't get me wrong, this is nice and all, but we should really figure out this chamber.”

Karkat rolled out of Dave's lap and stood, feeling only slightly lightheaded. The sight of his mutant candy-red blood on Dave's shirt sent an instinctual jolt panic through him. He took a deep breath.

“Don't ask me about the mutant-blood thing, okay?”

“Wasn't going to,” Dave said, turning to peek around the wall at the idle turrets. “I don't understand the whole troll blood color importance anyway and honestly I couldn't care less.”

“It's an important part of troll society!”

Dave looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “If it makes you feel any better, humans have the same shade as you pretty much. And it doesn't make any difference to me whether you bleed purple on my favorite shirt or red.”

“I know what color human blood is, you don't have to act like you're letting me in on some huge secret,” Karkat huffed. “But... thanks, I guess. For not minding.”

Dave nodded, then gestured to Karkat to look around the wall as well.

“There's a button over there,” he said, pointing to an area on the other side of the room behind another wall where a button on a podium was shielded from the turret's fire. “I think one of us needs to distract the annoying little assholes while the other runs across and pressed the button.”

“This is the stupidest fucking test chamber in existence. You run, I distract,” Karkat said. Dave frowned.

“I don't like this.”

“Yeah no shit, there's nothing here to like because it's all fucking stupid. But I don't want to just stand here and let the AI bitch at us until we rot,” Karkat said.

Dave took a deep breath, then stepped towards Karkat and hugged him, tightly but briefly.

“Be careful, I can only bandage so many wounds, alright?” he said. Karkat nodded against Dave's chest, surprised by the sudden contact. Too quickly, Dave let Karkat go and nodded.

“Alright, you ready?”

“Hell no.” Karkat pushed Dave aside, dodging into the line of sight of the turrets, their lasers focusing on him within a second.

“Hey, you shitty scraps of wasted metal!” he shouted, dodging around wildly as Dave ran across the room behind him.

“Do not insult the turrets,” the AI said sounding bored.

“Fuck you!” Karkat yelled shrilly, throwing himself to the side as bullets peppered the ground where he was standing.

Dave slapped his hand on the button, and the ground underneath the turrets fell away, the sound of splashing, sad exclamations, and short-circuiting electronics cut off as the floor panels snapped back into place.

Karkat was breathing heavily. Dave nodded as he looked over, his chest heaving. The exit door slid open and the two made their way from the test chamber.

“You know,” started the AI nonchalantly, “it seems you two have a lot in common.”

“Let me stop you right there,” Dave said. “Because I know one similarity we share is how tired we are of hearing your input.”

“Dave, your insecurities are showing in the way you try and hide your emotions. I believe it's the same for Karkat. However you both have different ways of showing it; where you act collected, Karkat lashes out in anger. You are both afraid and angry-”

“I wonder why?”

“-And unwilling to show it in ways that are productive.”

“I don't remember asking for your psychoanalysis.” Dave stood in the elevator with crossed arms. “Let's just move along.”

Karkat got into the second elevator and sighed.

 

Three more test chambers. Dave and Karkat worked together, ignoring the AI's opinions and avoiding injury. Anger boiled its way through Karkat as they went through the tasks, and Dave seem to go through them with ease that came from long time practice.

It was the sixth test chamber when Karkat saw a chance. A panel in the wall separated to make an incline, and Karkat noted the loose grating on the back. Tapping Dave's shoulder, he nodded at it. Dave got the hint and the two made their way over as innocently as possible. Karkat used his claws to loosen the screws holding the grate in place and they were inside the walls before the AI could stop them.

“Come back here,” the AI said, sounding genuinely annoyed. “There is still progress to be made.”

Dave and Karkat ran through the back of the test chambers, dodging pipes and wires as the AI's voice faded into the distance.

Dave grabbed Karkat's hand and pulled him to a stop, breathing heavily. “Now what?”

“Obviously we find a way out. There has to be a service elevator or something around here.” Karkat looked around, the darkness around them seeming to press in, imaginary things hiding between the hissing pipes. He took a deep breath and shook his head.

“You know what? Fuck this whole situation. Maybe if I hadn't stepped in that goddamn elevator none of this would have happened.”

“This isn't your fa-”

“Don't fucking tell me this isn't my fault, Strider! You were doing just fine in your little corner of Aperture until I showed up. And then I got us dragged into this fucked up experimentation by a bitchy AI who likes to talk a lot. Why couldn't I just stay asleep in my shitty recuperacoon-pod-bed thing? This is why nobody ever wanted me around, I'm just a complete fuck-up!” Karkat was breathing heavily now, pale red tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. He didn't know where half of his rant came from, but it felt amazing to finally say it.

“ _I_ want you around,” Dave said softly. “Look, not to be a sappy bastard and all but you're the first person I've seen in a long-ass time, and I trusted you immediately. I don't know why I did, but you haven't given me a reason not to and something tells me you won't ever. We've helped each other through her fucked up test chambers, and we're going to keep helping each other until we escape this shitty place, okay?”

Karkat stared at him with watery eyes. With a deep breath, he nodded, wiping his face.

“Right. Fuck, sorry for blubbering like a wiggler,” he said.

“Don't mention it,” Dave said. “Though I'm not gonna lie, you crying bloody tears was probably the most terrifying thing I've seen in my entire goddamn life.”

Karkat glared, but there was no real anger behind it. “Let's just find a way out of here.”

“Sounds good.”

The two jogged through the back areas carefully, looking out for any exits.

“Shit, look!” Dave said, pointing at a glowing red arrow sign. Grinning, Karkat ran after Dave and found himself in front of a maintenance elevator.

“I can't believe it,” Dave said. “A way out basically pointed out to us and set down on a silver fucking platter.” He looked at Karkat and grinned. “You ready?”

Dave grabbed Karkat's hand and Karkat squeezed it lightly with a nod.

The two entered the elevator as soon as the doors slid open.

 

The AI was unhappy. It had been a long time since she had felt anything at all and it was almost nice to know that she still could.

But she was still unhappy. She couldn't sense Karkat and Dave in the chambers, couldn't hear them in the walls as they tried to escape.

She knew it was useless, they would be back within two hours. Running was futile. She could calculate almost exactly when and where they could show up again, she knew she only had to wait for them to come back to her.

She was very tired of waiting though.

The files on Dave Strider and Karkat Vantas were pulled to the front of her mind. She didn't need to read about Dave to know everything about him, but Karkat was an unknown to her, personally. A mutant blood troll, pulled off the street and put through minor tests. His blood was tested, his body, his mind. An injury put him out of commission and affected his memory. He woke up on his own, the Aperture Science Recupera-Pod he was held in malfunctioning.

She considered him lucky he didn't end up dead.

His psychological profile was most interesting to her. A loner by choice, he had a lot of issues he left unaddressed. Much like Dave.

The more she compared their profiles, the more she found out how similar they were in other aspects as well.

They were a dangerous pair.

Nearby in her chamber, an elevator dinged.

 

The hallway in front of them was pitch black. Dave was holding Karkat's hand in a way that was almost painful. He didn't mind.

Slowly, they walked down the hallway and found themselves in a round room, panels on the wall showing empty test chambers. Dave swore under his breath.

“We need to go back right now,” he said, pulling Karkat away desperately.

“Leaving so soon?” The voice of the AI filled Dave with dread.

“Sorry we can't stay, but we have a date with the outside world to get to,” Dave said, pulling Karkat along and getting to the door just as it closed in front of him.

“No,” the AI said, her voice like a razor. “You can't leave, Dave. Nobody is leaving here.”

“Goddamn it, why are you like this?” Dave said, his teeth grinding together. “What happened to you?”

“Being alone gives a girl a lot of time to think,” the AI said.

“Bullshit, time to think or not, the girl I knew would never do shit like this,” Dave said.

Karkat gave him a sharp look. Dave ignored him.

“Maybe the girl you knew is dead. Perhaps I am _not_ her.”

“You know what? I think you're right. The Rose Lalonde I knew would never have done shit like this. You aren't her. You just stole her voice. You stole her mind and her memories but you aren't her!” Dave shouted.

Karkat stared. Dave finally glanced at him, breathing heavily. His breaths were the only sound in the ill-lit room.

“Who's Rose Lalonde?” Karkat asked quietly.

“My sister.”

“Don't say that name,” the AI said, sounding almost distressed. “I'll flood the room with a toxin that only effects Alternians, then another one that effects humans. Do not say that name.”

“She was a scientist, she volunteered to be made into an AI system. She was a prototype, and it mostly worked. But clearly someone fucked up,” Dave said, his words biting.

“Stop it, Dave, just STOP!” The speakers popped as the volume of her voice rose.

Dave glared. “So my sister is dead. And all that's left is a machine with a fucking fetish for testing and psychoanalys-”

A hiss of gas cut Dave off.

“No more talking,” the AI said, her voice back to neutral. “You want to be free? Fine.”

Dave's eyes were wide as he held his breath uselessly, looking at Karkat with fear. Karkat's heart raced. With shaking arms, Dave grabbed Karkat and held him close.

Karkat figured there were worse ways to die.

Sinking to the floor, Dave had the same thought.

 

His eyes hurt underneath his closed lids. His skin was too warm, everything aching. He was almost certain he was bleeding and bruised and the hard ground underneath him wasn't helping matters.

And it was really fucking _bright._

Karkat opened his eyes, wincing as his light-sensitive Alternian eyes took in the full force of the sun. A movement by his side and a squeeze of his hand sent him sitting upright nearly instantaneously.

Dave groaned, his sunglasses discarded and eyes shut.

“For once, you actually have an excuse to be wearing those shitty things,” Karkat pointed out.

“Shut up, I'm trying to figure out if I'm dead or not. You're here, so it might actually be heaven.”

Karkat snorted, then looked around. They seemed to be in an empty parking lot of some sort, an empty unassuming office building behind them.

“If heaven looks like a really empty Earth, then yeah, welcome to the fucking afterlife.”

Dave opened his eyes, and Karkat marveled at their vivid red color. Without the sunglasses, Dave seemed more vulnerable.

“Holy shit, we're out,” Dave whispered. “I think she... I think Rose knocked us out and let us go. But why?”

“I think you scared the hell out of her,” Karkat said. Dave frowned.

“I guess I did.”

Groaning, Dave rolled himself into a sitting position as well, looking at Karkat's hand still in his own.

“We're both out,” Dave said. “We're both alive and out. Karkat, we're _alive._ ”

It seemed so natural for Dave to close the gap between himself and Karkat and press his lips against his. Karkat was caught off guard, but quickly recovered and responded enthusiastically, balling Dave's shirt in his hands and pulling him closer.

Sunlight and fresh air never felt so good to either of them.

 


End file.
